Methodology
What to do if you do not have the carrier contract at hand
Published: 2026-09-28
The most common obstacle at the start of an audit is not the decision. It is the rate schedule that nobody can find.
Why this happens
A carriage contract is signed once, while the rate schedule is updated every year or more often. It usually arrives by email as an Excel file, one person receives it, and two years later nobody knows which version applied in April.
Sometimes something else comes to light: there is no written rate schedule at all, and the rates are agreed in correspondence.
What can be checked without it
More than it seems, but less than one would like.
Without the contract the arithmetic works: whether the amount matches the stated number of days and the rate, whether the same line is charged twice, whether the container or the vehicle matches the other documents.
What does not work is the most important part: whether the rate that was agreed is the one applied, and whether the free time matches what was agreed. And that is exactly where the largest amounts are.
How to obtain it
Three routes, starting with the fastest.
Searching the mailbox. The rate schedule was almost always sent by email. A search on the carrier's name together with the word “rate” or “tariff” produces a result more often than expected.
A request to the carrier. Asking for the rate schedule that applied in a given period is routine and neutral. It does not mean you are preparing a dispute.
Reconstruction from the invoices. If the rate is stable, it can be recovered from the invoices themselves. That will not do for a dispute — you cannot rely on a rate you derived yourself from the very document you are disputing — but it does serve to judge whether it is worth looking further.
What not to do
Do not wait until all the documents are together.
An audit can begin with partial material, as long as it is clear what stays unchecked. In practice, once it has begun it often turns out that the missing document is easier to find when you already know exactly what it is needed for.